McCullers capped off career with a pair of elusive state titles; 9 more make all-area team
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Suwannee’s Brianna McCuller is the LCR’s Girls Weightlifter of the Year. (COURTESY)
LIVE OAK — On the mat at the state meet, it all was on the verge of slipping away.
Suwannee’s Brianna McCullers’ vision for a state championship her senior year was hanging in the balance, as well as her own consciousness.
Competing with North Bay Haven’s Gillian Peaden for the Olympic state title at 169 pounds, McCullers’ second attempt in the clean and jerk was at risk of going horribly wrong.
When McCullers cleaned her 190-pound attempt, it landed too far back on her neck, nearly causing her to pass out.
Suwannee coach Dan Marsee said McCullers was wobbling, causing coaches and state officials preparing to rush in to catch her, when something amazing happened.
“Somehow she stabilizes herself, is able to catch her breath holding the top weight in the state and then throws the perfect jerk,” he said. “I mean that was the lift. Even the judges said this was the lift of the day in all the classifications.”
That lift of the day almost didn’t happen. McCullers said her initial reaction after catching it too far back was to drop the bar in an effort to save herself, since she had one more lift in the event. But she knew Peaden had one more lift coming too. It was enough to force her to push through.
“I just held it here, I stopped for a second and I was like, ‘I can’t drop this bar. This girl has this other lift, I have to have this lift,’” she said. “So I waited until I was able to catch my breath. Everything had gone black. So I waited until everything was at least a little blurry, not completely black and I was like, ‘I have to throw this jerk, I have to throw it.’ And I threw it and somehow, by the glory of God, I got the lift.”
She also got the hardware. Peaden missed her next lift at 195 pounds, clinching the state title for the Suwannee senior, who also captured the Olympic title in dominant fashion for a sweep as part of the Bulldogs’ pair of state titles as a team.
It also helped McCullers hoist the title of Lake City Reporter Girls Weightlifter of the Year.
That lift also, in some ways, was a perfect microcosm of McCullers’ season. Nothing came easy, but through hard work and determination, the success still came.
As a junior, McCullers qualified for the state meet but had a rough day there and missed the podium. Marsee recalled she was in tears. The coach told his pupil to soak in the experience, recall it and let it serve as a springboard into a senior season where she could reverse those feelings.
However, after an offseason that included a trip to the USA Weightlifting national meet, McCullers’ senior season didn’t get off to a championship-level start.
Rather, preseason practice was a struggle.
Instead of ramping up for a big year, McCullers had difficulty lifting the weights that she had hit in the past.
It weighed on her.
“I had some discouragements that I was almost to the point where I wanted to quit,” she said.
Instead, she was determined to not let all the hard work the past few years go to waste. She aimed to push through those struggles.
Marsee, though, had another plan. Rather than continue to aim for where McCullers wanted to be, Marsee wanted to aim lower.
He cut back the weights she was lifting.
“I told her we’re going to lighten the load, get your confidence back,” he said. “Oh, she fought it at first. ‘Coach, I can do so much more than this.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I know. We’re going to get to that point.’ So I kind of went backward to go forward.
“When you lose that confidence, that’s 85% of the battle.”
The move, after McCullers bought in, paid off. Soon, McCullers started nailing all of her lifts. Marsee, though, stuck with the plan he had put in motion to gradually work the weights up with the focus on the state title and nothing else.
That focus meant McCullers, after sweeping titles at the district meet, finished third behind Peaden and Wewahitchka’s Ashlyn Ake at the regional meet.
That meet, though, also gave Marsee the confidence that the plan was going to pay off with the bigger prize.
For the first time, he knew McCullers was going to win state.
“Never had the feeling it could happen because of how good the competition was until regionals when I got to see all the lifters,” he said. “I got to see how each one of them moved the bar. Every day leading up to it was where are we going to place, not win.”
However seeing how easily McCullers was moving the bar compared to Peaden and Ake, Marsee and Suwannee assistant Jimmy McCullers, Brianna’s father, raised the bar for what state could bring.
McCullers could see it too.
“I told her she was going to win this comfortably and she just believed,” Marsee said.
It was a belief that had existed all year and would result in joy in Lakeland.
“When I finally won it, it was unimaginable,” McCuller said. “It was something I had worked for for so long and I finally accomplished it, it was amazing.”
ALL-AREA TEAM
101: Caroline Allen
Suwannee, senior
Swept Class 1A state titles in traditional (240 total) and Olympic (230 total). Posted 255 totals in traditional to win District 4 and Region 1 titles while also sweeping those crowns in Olympic.
101: Sakiya Merriex
Columbia, junior
Swept District 3-2A titles in traditional and Olympic before grabbing runner-up finish in Region 1-2A. She placed eighth at the Class 2A state meet in Olympic (205 total) and tied for eighth in traditional (220 total), numbers that would’ve been good for third place in both in Class 1A.
110: Hylan Hurst
Suwannee, senior
Placed fourth in traditional (245 total) and third in Olympic (240 total) at Class 1A state meet. District 4 champion in both traditional and Olympic before placing third in Olympic and seventh in traditional at Region 1 meet.
119: Jordyn Rodriguez
Suwannee, junior
Swept Class 1A state titles in traditional (295 total) and Olympic (280 total). Also swept District 4 and Region 1 titles, posting a 310 total in traditional at districts and a 285 total in Olympic at both districts and regionals.
119: Maddie McMillan
Suwannee, senior
Won a weight tiebreaker for sixth place in Olympic at the Class 1A state meet with a 245 total after finishing third in District 4 and fourth in Region 1. Also placed ninth in traditional at state with a 260 total — 15 pounds away from a medal — following a sixth-place finish at regionals and a third-place finish at districts.
139: Johana Alicea
Suwannee, senior
Placed fifth in both traditional (325 total) and Olympic (295 total) at the Class 1A state meet. Swept District 4 titles while placing third in traditional and fourth in Olympic at the Region 1 meet.
169: Brianna McCullers
Suwannee, senior
The LCR’s Girls Weightlifter of the Year swept Class 1A state titles in traditional (385 total) and Olympic (350 total). Also won District 4 titles in both while winning a Region 1 title in traditional to go with a fourth-place finish in Olympic.
199: Kaly Cuffy
Suwannee, senior
Won the Class 1A state title in Olympic with a 360 total and was a state runner-up in traditional with a 375 total after losing the weight tiebreaker for first place. Swept District 4 titles while winning a Region 1 title in Olympic to go with a runner-up finish in traditional.
199: Jasmine Logan
Suwannee, senior
Placed sixth in Olympic at the Class 1A state meet (280 total) following runner-up finishes in District 4 and Region 1. Also finished seventh at state in traditional with a 310 total — missing out on a medal by 10 pounds — after a runner-up finish at districts and a third-place finish at regionals.
UNL: Savannah White
Suwannee, junior
Placed fourth in Olympic (355 total) and sixth in traditional (380 total) at the Class 1A state meet. Swept District 4 titles before totaling 400 pounds for a runner-up finish in traditional in Region 1 to go with a runner-up finish in Olympic.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Dan Marsee, Suwannee
Marsee’s Bulldogs repeated as Class 1A state champions in both traditional (finishing ahead of runner-up Wewahitchka 32-17) and Olympic (39-23 ahead of runner-up Wewahitchka). It was also another season where Suwannee swept through team District 4 and Region 1 titles, with its district and regional championships in traditional marking six straight for both. In total, 19 of Marsee’s lifters quailed for the state meet, with the Bulldogs taking home 16 medals that included seven individual state titles.
HONORABLE MENTION: Suwannee: Andlyn Lundy, Calinn Daniel, Katerine Lansford, Jordan Williams, Emaysa Blue, Samantha Turner, Maylee Jo Gabey, Melanee Jones, Brianna Woods, Lilly Garafola; Branford: Ainsley Irby, Liberty Ward, Haylee Adair; Fort White: Savannah Parnell, Abigail Lambert
— All-area capsules by Sports Editor Jordan Kroeger